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Meet Noemy Hernandez of ‘Everyday Arts’ & ‘Bilingual Playground’ in San Fernando Valley

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Noemy Hernandez.

Noemy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am an LA Native who runs two companies while working part-time for a nonprofit that provides arts education to underserved youth.  I am half Mexican/ half Colombian and have studied folklorico (Mexican Folk Dance) all of my life. My life was changed for the better when, at 13 years old, I joined Ballet Folklorico del Pacifico (now called Pacifico Dance Company) in Los Angeles. I connected to the music, community, and un-shakeable work ethic the company provided. Through rehearsing with this company, I also fell in love with ballet and modern dance. I developed the ability to feel “seen” and found a new level of confidence in myself. I graduated in the top 1% of my high school graduating class, and was accepted into UC Irvine’s dance program (at the time 2nd in the nation below Juilliard).  In undergrad, I performed countless productions, chose to specialize in choreography and double minored in both theater and in business management. I was in the Spanish dance ensemble and in the Jazz dance ensemble. I worked with Donald McKayle, Bob Boross, Loretta Livingston, Cleo Parker Robinson, and so many other amazing mentors. I also worked with Dennis Castellano and Myrona Delaney, and Eli Simon in musical theater training and productions. Within a year after graduation, I was a Shark girl in West Side Story, a snowflake in the Nutcracker, and moved to NYC with a roommate I found on Craigslist, a suitcase, and the conviction to stay in NYC for at least one year of my life.   After a series of performances in off-broadway shows, I was told about an audition for Calpulli Mexican Dance Company. I longed for the dance family that I had in LA, and went to the audition to check it out. Within 3 months, I was the rehearsal director, and within 3 years I became the Artistic Director. I was Artistic Director for 3 years, and am currently frequently commissioned to do work for them. I have choreographed works for/with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Grammy-winning artist Arturo O’Farrill, Grammy-winning artists (and the first all-female mariachi of NYC) Mariachi Flor De Toloache, and Shakespeare in the Park’s “The Tempest”. My work has been performed at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and most recently in Turkey.

After 9 years in New York City, life brought me back to Los Angeles.  Having worked as a Teaching Artist and a Program Coordinator for arts-in-education organizations for many years.  I decided to do level up and take another leap of faith into entrepeneurship. Many years of being a leader in various capacities led me to founding 2 companies here in L.A.; I am CEO of Bilingual Playground– an arts in education organization that provides dance instruction to K-12 schools and a Spanish language music program, Bilingual Birdies Hollywood, to early childhood. I am also Executive Director of Everyday Arts- a nonprofit company dedicated to providing professional development to classroom teachers to train them in how to integrate the arts into their everyday curriculum to increase engagement for special needs students and/or inclusive classrooms.

Entrepeneurialism might not seem like an obvious choice for someone in the arts, but for me it progressed rather naturally.  I view choreography as a physical manifestation of self-efficacy. When choreographing, you are constantly making a series of choices that are in alignment with an overall idea. Our lives are like a huge piece of choreography, where we get to choose on a moment-to-moment basis what we do next in any given circumstance. I find the combination of challenge and possibility absolutely thrilling. My entrepeneurial spirit is born out of my love for this combination.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I might come off as overly positive, but that is more of a reflection of my attitude than it is about how easy things have been. I have definitely had hard times including but not limited to being broke, feeling lonely, having a stalker, being confused, being sexually assaulted by a “friend”, having family drama, the list goes on.  Currently, I often hear “you’re biting off more than you can chew” or “you’re doing too much” or “be careful that you’re not neglecting your responsibilities to your mom and your daughter.” I say, I AM fulfilling my responsibilities by showing the world that there is absolutely no good reason to not live a meaningful and fulfilling life.  Having to navigate other people’s fears and your own at the same time is definitely not easy.

My most seemingly insurmountable struggle happened a little over five years ago. While living in New York, I was living solely from choreographing, directing, teaching, and performing. I wasn’t rich, but I felt I was moving up, around the right people, and had a solid group of friends and mentors. In 2012 I had my daughter, and my partner and I were working on the beginnings of our little family. I was working on my Pilates certification in Brooklyn when I received a phone call. My mother had a stroke. As an only child, I was informed by my father (who is remarried) that her care was now my responsibility. I needed to move “home.” Her stroke was massive; she almost died about three times.

For months, I was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes, talking to doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and other staff to get a grip on what the options were, what was happening, and trying to gauge the options that were at hand. This, all while of course chasing my 18 month old up and down hospital hallways and trying to be as cordial as possible to the people who were dying to make small talk about how adorable she was. We asked our landlord if we could sublet our apartment in Brooklyn until further notice. He agreed. A year passed, and painfully, we had to let the apartment go once my mom was stable and into her “new normal,” as they called it. She was paralyzed on her right side and lost her ability to speak words; Normal was not the word I would have used. My little family then left New York and moved into my mother’s home while I took on a huge learning curve. I suddenly became an advocate, a caregiver, a landlord, an insurance specialist, and a social worker all while simultaneously being a mom and partner. It took me three years to shift my mindset from “emergency mode” to feeling like I was able to have a moment to worry about regaining control over my life– to live my life consciously—but I made a choice that my circumstances were not going to dictate who I was.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with ‘Everyday Arts’ & ‘Bilingual Playground’ – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Bilingual Playground provides dance instruction for local K-12 schools. What sets our dance program apart is that we provide standards-based dance instruction and combine it with social dance and cultural dances to examine both historical contexts as well as who we are now as a people.

As CEO of Bilingual Playground, I also run a program called Bilingual Birdies Hollywood– a live music bilingual Spanish program for kids ages 0-5. We are in preschools and birthday parties, and use songs, puppets, games, and more to help children learn Spanish in early childhood. We celebrate diversity and offer educational topics like colors and shapes as well as socio-emotional learning– all in Spanish. In addition to multilingualism being scientifically proven to further cognitive skills, we are proud to be able to show kids, at such a young age, that diversity is something to be celebrated and enjoyed!  Check us out at www.bilingualbirdies.com/losangeles.

I am also a founder and Executive Director of nonprofit organization, Everyday Arts. We train classroom teachers in how to use the arts in their classroom to engage their diverse learning populations and are very proud of our work. Our staff has over ten years of experience working as a team with arts integration for special needs classrooms. We also train in best practices for inclusion classrooms- where special needs children are mixed in with general education students. Years of data back up the effectiveness of our work. This year, we presented at the ‘Inventing Our Future’ arts education conference in San Francisco and am happy to say, we received a contract with The Kennedy Center to do work with a school that has a large Deaf and Hard of Hearing population. You can check us out at www.everydayarts.org.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Big plans? Always!

Thinking meta: The ultimate plan is that one day my daughter can learn her mom’s story and see a woman who believed in herself and carved her own path despite having many obstacles. The end of the rainbow is wherever she wants it to be!

As for choreography, I have a dance for film collaboration piece stewing, and am excited to “dig in” to the piece.

Both ‘Everyday Arts’ and ‘Bilingual Playground’ are in their first year of programming, so I’m looking forward to an awesome second year where we can expand our reach and bring arts education and arts integration to even more kids!

Upcoming ‘Everyday Arts’ projects include presenting at VSA Intersections: Arts and Special Education Conference in Irvine in October of 2019. You can register at https://education.kennedy-center.org/education/vsa/programs/special_education_conference.cfm .

‘Bilingual Playground’ has a dance showcase of student learning at R.L. Stevenson Elementary in December of 2019, and we are so excited to see the kids’ new skills. Bilingual Birdies Hollywood can also be seen (and heard!) in various preschool classrooms and birthday parties throughout LA this year. Check out www.bilingualbirdies.com/losangeles to have us come to your party or school!

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Image Credit:
Julieta Cervantes, Dustin Ellison

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